Expecto Patronum!!!!

Hey everyone, this will be an early update before class Friday. I am normally going to update the blog on Thursday nights, but since tomorrow night is pretty much international Harry Potter night with the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, I seriously doubt I am going to say anything intelligent.

The readings this week dealt with the use of twitter in the classroom and networking with educational professionals. My past experience with twitter has been more of a personal and social use (follow me here: @joshsko318). I get most of my sports and current events news from twitter. For example, on the night Osama Bin Laden was killed by the Navy  Seals Team Six, the news was posted on twitter over two hours before it was released on major network broadcast news. It was really exciting to be at the forefront of breaking news. To see a major moment of American and world history being released before my very eyes is amazing.

I have thought about using twitter as tool for communication with my class beyond announcing general course announcements. I found the idea of using twitter to create a story or poem very interesting and creative. The entire 140 character requirement of twitter ensures that each entry needs to be thoughtful and meaningful. I also like the idea of using twitter as a tool for real time measurement to assess student understanding by setting up a twitter poll. A teacher can quickly assess the current conceptual understanding of the class. 

My last thought for today is kinda fun. I was having a discussion with a fellow cohort on facebook about educational reform as depicted in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. For those of you that may not be up on the Harry Potter canon, Hogwarts the school of witchcraft and wizardry is taken over by an agent of the wizarding government, Deloris Umbridge. At this current period, the government is slowly be taken over by the bad guys led by Lord Voldemort and Umbridge is one of the bad guys, known as the Death Eaters. Umbridge enacts a set of educational decrees to push forth the goals of the Death Eaters: ensure free practicing of magic without restrictions and laws, and enact a sort of ethnic cleansing so only pure blood wizards and witches exist. Our question is what type of reform is Deloris pushing for; social mobility, social efficiency, or a republican goal to create good citizens to support the goals of the fascist Death Eater government?